The mechanism of action of cannabidiol (CBD), the main non-psychotropic component of Cannabis sativa L., is not completely understood. First assumed that the compound was acting via cannabinoid CB2 receptors (CB2Rs) it is now suggested that it interacts with non-cannabinoid G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs); however, CBD does not bind with high affinity to the orthosteric site of any GPCR. To...

Rapsyn, a peripheral membrane protein of skeletal muscle, is necessary for the formation of the highly organized structure of the vertebrate neuromuscular junction. For mice lacking rapsyn, there is a failure of postsynaptic specialization characterized by an absence of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) and other integral and peripheral membrane proteins such as beta-dystroglycan and u...

Reduced glutathione (GSH) is an intracellular molecule essential for many aspects of cell physiology and defense. Determination of GSH has been used to identify potential anti-cancer drugs and for the assessment of drug toxicity via generation of oxidative stress. The described protocol was designed to modify existing protocols for the fluorescent detection of intracellular GSH in a high throug...

Osteopontin (OPN) is a multifunctional matricellular protein produced by a broad range of cells including osteoclasts, macrophages, T cells, endothelial cells, and vascular smooth muscle cells. OPN modulates various physiological and pathological events such as inflammation, wound healing, and bone formation and remodeling. Dengue virus (DENV) infection causes an increase in plasma OPN levels, ...

Neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) can promote the repair of central nervous system and retinal damage. In previous reports, NT-3 has been expressed by viral vectors. However, plasmid vectors have a safer profile compared with viral vectors in clinical studies. This study recombined amplified human retinal NT-3 with a eukaryotic expression plasmid containing green fluorescent protein (GFP) to construct an N...

Previously we identified MIR16 (membrane interacting protein of RGS16) as an integral membrane glycoprotein that interacts with regulator of G protein signaling proteins and shares significant sequence homology with bacterial glycerophosphodiester phosphodiesterases (GDEs), suggesting that it is a putative mammalian GDE. Here we show that MIR16 belongs to a large, evolutionarily conserved famil...

It has been reported that endogenous retroviruses can contaminate human cell lines that have been passaged as xenotransplants in immunocompromised mice. We previously developed and described 2 human pancreatic β cell lines (EndoC-βH1 and EndoC-βH2) that were generated in this way. Here, we have shown that B10 xenotropic virus 1 (Bxv1), a xenotropic endogenous murine leukemia virus (MuLV), is pr...

Varicella zoster virus (VZV) open reading frame 61 (ORF61) is one of the four transcription regulated proteins, which is homologous to herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) ICP0 and can partially complement the function of ICP0 in ICP0 deletion mutant HSV-1. Since ICP0 can inhibit the innate immunity in many levels such as IRF3 and PML, here we investigate the role of ORF61 in helping VZV evading IFN-...

Neuromedin U (NMU) activates two G protein-coupled receptors, NMUR1 and NMUR2; this signaling not only controls many physiological responses but also promotes tumorigenesis in diverse tissues. We recently identified a novel truncated NMUR2 derived by alternative splicing, namely NMUR2S, from human ovarian cancer cDNA. Sequence analysis, cell surface ELISA and immunocytochemical staining using 2...

Objective: To construct a recombinant lentivirus vector which carries SD rat transducer of regulated CREB activity-1(TORC1) gene and examine its ability to express the TORC1 gene in vitro. Methods: The coding sequence of SD rat TORC1 gene was amplified using PCR and cloned into pGC-FU vector. 293T cells were transfected using Lipofectamine 2000 and packaged for the recombinant lentivirus partic...